Restaurant

                Resturant is the concept of an establishment designed solely for serving food. The idea of an establishment dedicated to serving food dates back as far as ancient Rome and Sung dynasty China, while many historians credit eighteenth-century France for originating the truely modern restaurant (the name derives from the French word restaurer, meaning "to restore"). The oldest true restaurent in Europe, however, is said to be the Stiftskeller St.Peter, which is housed within the walls of St.Peter's Archabbey in Salzburg, Australia. Mentioned in a document as far back as 803, it is believed to be the oldest continuosly operating  restaurant in the world. Today diners there may enjoy their food to the accompaniment of daily live performances of the music of Mozart.

                The predecessors of what we would call restaurants, establishments in which food, alcohol and other beverages were permitted to be sold, tended to be inns (mostly for the benefit of travelers rather than local people) and street kitchens. The earliest French "restaurants" were highly regulated places selling what were called restaurants, meat-based consommes specifically intended to "restore" an individual's strength. The first Fench restaurant of this type was likely that of a Parisian seller of bouillon (broth) named Boulanger, who established his restauant in 1765. Such places were first developed into what has become the modern restaurant industry during the French Revolution (1789-99), when the tight grip that the guilds had on the supply of certain foods was loosened, and at the same time a larger consumer base for restaurants was established

                 More than 200 years later, the restaurant has become a staple of human culture. With a rise in affluence comes a desire to pass to others the chores of buying and preparing food, and in a world increasingly fascinated by fine dining it is unlikely that the idea of the restaurant will ever fall out of fashion.